So...what did he do to you?

Posted on 21 Dec 2012 @ 8:28am by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Cyrus Kiwosk & Crewman Athlen

3,708 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo: Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 14 1600

ON:

Cyrus was making his way to the meal hall, dejected and defeated. He never wanted a drink more desperately in his life. He had taken one of the sleeping pills that night to try to catch at least a couple hours, but every time he took them he ended up confused, disorientated and just plain irritable. Waking up to find out he didn't have a job didn't help that training of thinking either.

He kept moving forward, eyes red from his medication. His hand throbbed, and was bandaged slightly, but it was still in working order. Pola had done miracles and a half in order to get him capable of moving the hand let alone use it. It would be of no use for a couple of days at the very least.

More like a few weeks.

Stupid...tree.

Stupid Stone Was a better thought, he fought to not grind his teeth.

Equally a sight for sore eyes, Athlen emerged through the back doors of the mess hall, his posture confident as ever despite the rows of eyes that turned to stare at him in lieu of whispered gossip about what had occurred yesterday morning. Athlen walked straight, ignoring them. He was used to this by now, should have been anyway, if his childhood schooling was anything to go by. (Look at the enraged feral-thing, it can walk and talk, what a miracle! Maybe today it will not eat someone's face! he thinks bitterly to himself as two operations officers stare at him like a science project.)

He sighed. On top of his forehead there was now a wrapped bandage. Both hands also bore wrapped bandages, and so did his shoulder, but this was hidden under the rumbled Starfleet sciences uniform he wore. His hair had been brushed back out of the way of the bandage on his head, revealing both the points of his ears, and the heavy golden heran-clasp on the opposite side of the tragus of his right ear.

There were several lacerations on his neck that trailed down his shoulders disappearing under his uniform. He didn't want to sit here today, but he would not give them the satisfaction of knowing they got to him. He would not run off like a coward. He picked up his tray, willing Calm through himself, and then sat down at the nearest table, as he always did. Only this time, it happened to be occupied by one Cyrus Kiwosk. He cleared his throat weakly. "I'm sorry, if I'm bothering you. There is nowhere else to sit down. I assure you, I have no intention of threatening your life," he stated dryly. Surely Kiwosk had heard by now.

Cyrus looked up and chuckled. "You look like shit." He pulled the chair so Athlen could sit down.

"Thank you for that assessment," Athlen returned sardonically.

Cyrus was babying a cup of black coffee. He managed a weak smile. "How was your time in the paper shredder?" He noticed the numerous bandages shook his head. "What's this now about threatening my life? The looks of you, you could hardly threaten a Ferengi." He replicated another cup of coffee and pushed it towards the Rigelian. "It'll help, trust me," he grunted, taking a sip.

Athlen cradled the cup in his bandaged up hands and slowly took a drink, peering at Cyrus over the lid. Cyrus didn't seem to be faring off much better than him. The bandages and stiff movement of Cyrus's hand looked much more severe than his own. "Yeah, I'm not really sure either," Athlen admitted truthfully with a shrug. "Apparently I'm very scary." He bared his teeth at another passing crewman who jumped and walked quickly away. Athlen buried a grin in his coffee cup.

"So what happened to you anyways, and why is everyone staring at you like you're going to eat my brain..." Cyrus could feel just as much scrutiny from the security personnel eating, so he flashed a select few people a dirty glare to turn them back to their meals.

Athlen sighed. "I was thrown into the brig earlier today for threatening a member of the diplomatic staff." He let that sink in, while he broke off a piece of fluffy bread-looking crumble and ate it. "An error of semantics and assumptions. Since I'm about as threatening as this pie... it was a misunderstanding. Unfortunately, to Lieutenant Stone, it was worth the trip." By now, Athlen was a little calmer about it, which was good, considering the beating he'd put his body through in order to get all the feelings out. The subsequent meeting with Maenad helped as well. "What happened to your hand?" the Rigelian asked, concern touching his eyes.

"Punched a tree," he said off-handedly. It was all he was able to get out before he was forced to take a sip of coffee. "Stone revoked my Security Clearance and kicked me off the duty roster...about as close to a firing as you can get without being technically fired." He extended his weakened hand. "So I punched a tree..." He chuckled.

Instinctively, Athlen reached as if to touch it, but stilled his hand just above Cyrus's and winced. "That... is certainly not nice looking," he offered with a nod.

"Broke the tree though so I felt like I accomplished something." He chuckled halfheartedly again.

He placed his hand back on his mug. "Why did Stone 'fire' you? From what I recall," he said, remembering their lessons on the phaser range, "You are a pretty good security officer."

"Stone thinks that my being a marine compromises my ability to be a Security Officer." He nodded at Athlen's compliment and sighed, repressing a flash of sudden anger. "You know, I have worked my ass off to grab a dual certification, and I did the work up training the Parker put forward, I don't get what the hell I did to make him think that I want to be a marine more than a Sec. Officer." He continued, his tone laced with frustration. "There is more than enough of me to be both, and truth be told. Being a Security Officer, where I can enforce and protect and prevent was what made me really want the position in the first place." He tried to make a fist, only to wince in pain. "He called me inept...you know that?" He snorted in disgust.

Athlen shook his head sadly. "Did you file a complaint with Holliday? You should be given the opportunity to mediate this. You're very good at what you do. I've seen your skills and you obviously care about the work, else you would not be here." Athlen shrugged.

"Oh the complaint has been filed." He sighed and rubbed his eyes with his good hand. "And you're absolutely right, if I didn't want to do my job well, I never would have requested a transfer. "

"So the brig eh? How is Davis, I haven't seen him in a while. He good? " He scrunched his face in confusion. "Why were you thrown in the brig? You spill soup on someone or something?" Cyrus laughed at his joke, completely unaware of how true his joke was.

"Essentially," Athlen agreed, heaving a sigh. "Lieutenant Stone knocked the soup out of my hand. It landed on Lieutenant Liyar. I'm not really sure exactly," he started with a small smile, "But one of the accusations was assault with a weapon. That's the only thing I can think of."

Cyrus's mouth hung open before closing with an audible snap. "That's...both funny and not funny...." He couldn't help but chuckle. "So he locked you up because he forced an assault with an improvised weapon...I hope he knows that there has to be intent to use the weapon in the first place..." He shook his head. "I assume Li tried his Vulcany best to help you." He shook his head. "Makes me want to just have 'No soup' signs posted everywhere on board the ship for the next month." He realized that Stone just might do something like that. "Don't mention that to him...how'd you get out? It certainly wasn't Stone's lovable rainbow filled happiness...Someone on the Science team bail you out?"

"Yes. I think the main point of contention was that he viewed I threatened someone," the Rigelian said thoughtfully. "Both Lieutenant Panne and Commander Holliday came down and spoke to him." Athlen paused, sticking his fork into the bread filled contraption he'd ordered. "Who is Li? Vulcany... Oh, Liyar," he said, starting to laugh. "Does he know you call him that?" His shoulders shook from laughing.

Cyrus chuckled. "Oh he does, and it pisses him off to no end." Leaning back he nursed the coffee. "He corrects me every single time. I don't think he realized that he unwittingly sealed his new nickname." He waved dismissively. "He'll get used to it. "

"I sincerely doubt that, Mr. Kiwosk," the dry baritone of the Galileo's diplomatic officer pronounced as the Vulcan in question swept past them and sat down on the unoccupied chair between them. He placed his tray in front of him. The good news was that all the staring at Cyrus and Athlen promptly stopped after Liyar's harsh glare over the direction of the other mess hall participants.

The crew compliment scans were finished for the most part, though after reporting to Coleman he'd immediately broken away. He had to space it out, at least a bit. It was logical, but Liyar hated taking breaks. His ability to regulate his own biological systems was failing, due to the rapidly increasing strain on his shields as he had to focus on people individually to help conduct the scans. Under all nominal circumstances he reasoned he should be able to easily stem the flow of information from others, but it felt like his shielding was water in comparison to the raging thoughts of everyone else. (It isn't normal, but he's trying to ignore that part.)

Another hour of meditation and -- food, people ate. Eating was important. And so here he was. Then it would be back to the grind, putting solutions to work... or something.

"LI!" He winced as set his hand down too fast on the table. "Glad you could make it!" He grinned.

Liyar resisted the urge to visibly withdraw from the pain of Kiwosk's loud boom (did he really have to talk that loud? Is he always this loud?) and blinked at the onslaught. His blink was unamused. "Quieter," the Vulcan requested, ears drawn back.

"Wow. You look like 'shit'," he repeated Cyrus's words, "Too, Liyar. Are you all right?"

The Vulcan ignored his analysis. "Affirmative, Crewman."

Athlen watched him for a minute before seeming to accept that at face value. He doubted Liyar would tell him anyway, especially in the mess. "...But yeah," he started, switching back to their other conversation, "He," he pointed at Liyar, "Tried to tell them otherwise," Athlen nodded. "I guess once an arrest is made, it's irrelevant." He took another bite of bread-thing. "Something about crime against the Federation versus crime against just Liyar The Person. Since you became part of SDD, you're no longer just a person," he explained to Liyar, "But basically an extension of the Federation. So, threatening a Federation diplomat is a federal offense? I think? I tried to look it up but all the words were... confusing."

Cyrus nodded and sighed. "Well, that's the thing with politics....they say it is something, but you can never seem to find what you need to prove it." He sighed and turned to his Vulcan compadre. "Good on you for sticking up for Athlen, Liyar. He didn't deserve the incarceration any more than I deserved my Clearance revoke. I hope that Stone learns that he's not as high on the totem pole as he thinks he is..." He grumbled.

"It is more than likely that Commander Holliday will reinstate your clearances," Liyar said. "Captain Saalm approved your transfer here deliberately, and is undoubtedly aware of your dual qualifications. Ultimately, your place on the Galileo cannot be dictated by anyone other than Starfleet Command, to which Lieutenant Stone pointedly does not belong." He was speaking a bit quieter than normal. He noted Cyrus's marine uniform, which he'd worn to the briefing earlier, but only connected the pieces together now.

Cyrus nodded and sighed. "You might be right, but that doesn't mean that Stone won't have it out for me. " He shrugged finishing his cup of coffee. "It just pisses me off that he shows up out of nowhere. Do we even have information on this guy? It's like he was raised by a family of Cardassians or Romulans or something."

"I do not suggest you inquire," Liyar answered pointedly, which was an answer as well as a warning. Athlen's mutual frown (well, not mutual, since Liyar does not frown, but their graveness comes in stereo, at least.) The Vulcan picked up his spoon and took another helping of plomeek soup.

The sudden change in Athlen and the almost order like response was alarming to Kiwosk. "I take it someone already did..." he stated.

Athlen cleared his throat and smiled weakly. "It's not exactly an easy subject, no," he said.

Another goldshirt sitting the next adjacent table over elbowed Cyrus. "Psst," he hissed, muttering under his breath, "Yeah, heard Stone's really sensitive about Cardassians. The guy nearly bit my head off for talking about their insane methods, said I didn't know what I was talking about. Probably a sympathizer," the guy scoffed.

Liyar offered the interruption a nice solid stare. "This is inappropriate speculation."

Cyrus whirled on the goldshirt. "I'm going to say this once. If I hear you spreading rumours of that sort again, I will have a report drawn up so fast that your head will literally spin. Am I clear?"

"Yeah, if the guy ever puts you back on duty," the guy snickered with a roll of his eyes. He sobered up at the look in Cyrus's eyes, realizing the anger for what it was, and gulped a little. He hastily picked up his tray. "Well, nice seeing you..." and beat the fastest retreat of his life.

"Enjoy your meal." The last thing that was needed was rumours about Stone being a Cardassian sympathizer or not. Cyrus had his beef with the Lieutenant, but he didn't want the man stripped of his position or investigated over anything.

Athlen narrowly avoided a wince. Liyar didn't. (The loud! and, all right, so meditation isn't really helping all that much...) "So... where did Parker go anyway? He was at the range, but now he's gone," Athlen observed, a curious look in his eyes, tactfully changing the subject.

Turning back to Athlen, Cyrus shrugged. "Petty Officer Davis said he had received a call from somewhere, that's all I know. Then yesterday, I meet this Lieutenant Stone who had apparently been on board for a few days without the entire security department knowing." Cyrus sighed. "Parker and I didn't see eye to eye, but he understood that Security was more than just rules and regulations. We have a heart too. If we don't know the full story behind something, we need to be able to investigate. We don't just lock people up in the Brig for soup spilling." He gestured to Athlen and Liyar.

"I find that the task of enforcing security cannot fully be applied without taking the merits of each scenario into account," Liyar agreed. He had been on the V'Shar forces, after all. "Rules exist to apply uniformity to situations which cannot always be quantified identically. We strive to perfect the system to include all known variables, but this is a logical impossibility," Liyar put forward after another small bit of soup.

"We question, if we have reason too, we incarcerate, but it's not our first trick out of the box. Certainly when the crew member doesn't have a history of aggressive behavior. Besides, it's your prerogative to go sparring with meat grinders if you want."

Athlen sighed, slumping. "You know, I have both sides of my planet mad at me now. Vro threatened war again. Poor Liyar had to calm the man down five times. This was supposed to be so much more diplomatic." The young Rigelian smothered his face in his hands, drawing the edges of his fingers down his nose with a shake of his head.

He punched Athlen softly on the shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up kid..." Chuckling at his own joke. "Seriously, everybody makes mistakes. All that you can do is learn from them and move on. Can you change what has happened?"

Athlen shook his head. "Probably not. Try and make amends, I guess. And figure out how to minimize these kinds of occurrences. I've been looking through the records, and they're very telling," he said, looking down at a PADD tucked into the corner of his tray.

"Can you do something now now to make sure that this doesn't happen again?" He asked.

"I'm planning on at least addressing the nature of the heran, so that it is more public. I'm looking at a way to implant the stone permanently instead. And Vro wants me to do P.R, and convince people Rigelians are not violent and out of control. I'm Athlen, your brand new friendly face." He positively scowled. "If it'll help, though, right?"

"I believe that your contribution will be useful," Liyar agreed.

"Diplomats," Athlen said dryly. "So what about you?" he asked Cyrus. "Do you have a plan of action when Holliday takes up your complaint? What you're going to do or say?"

Cyrus shrugged. "Honestly, I'm still confused on how the entire thing played out. I'm going to file that report and hopefully the Commander will see the forest through the trees." He replied hopefully.

"The ones you haven't punched," Athlen said with a smile.

Cyrus chuckled and flexed his hand slowly. "The ones I haven't punched, yes." Cyrus agreed. "You don't have anything to worry about. The Lieutenant-Professor will stick her neck out deep for people she likes..." He leaned in closer. "Don't tell I said that, it would upset the love/hate relationship we have. Very important she doesn't realize I like her...she'd have a cow...or two." He kept chuckling.

"For what reason would Lieutenant Panne possess a member of the Terran species Bos primigenius?"

"Colloquialism, Liyar," Athlen answered. "It means she would be very surprised, with a mildly negative connotation. Which is true. I haven't known her to be very fond of you in return," Athlen observed. "Do you two know eachother from somewhere before?"

Cyrus coughed. Hoping to avoid the topic. "So how about that food?" He sipped his coffee and sighed.

"That bad, huh?" Athlen asked sympathetically.

"Well, she was a professor at the academy right? Well, I maaaaay have convinced her that I wanted to be in one of her classes in a personal interview...and then...only...go...twice." He finished quietly. "But that's okay, because it's not like she noticed right HAHAHA." He chuckled sullenly shrugging his body towards the cup of coffee.

"Ouch, yes, I can't imagine she took that well," Athlen agreed with a little frown. "I imagine she felt insulted?" Athlen guessed, because he'd come to know at least a tertiary bit about the woman during their discussions.

"Let's just say I passed with a 52, because she couldn't find three other points to remove from my final mark..." He replied honestly. He sighed once more and realized that Liyar and Kiwosk needed to get back to business. "When are we supposed to head back Li?" He asked. Not looking forward for another bout with the CSCO.

"Liyar," the Vulcan corrected automatically. Athlen snickered behind his hand. "I will be capable of rejoining your efforts once I have finished my meal. I am told that food is necessary to humanoid survival," Liyar replied after a beat. This pronouncement was promptly negated when Liyar pushed the bowl away, shaking his head, looking a little yellow. Not so necessary at the moment. "Perhaps to adjourn now would be sufficient."

He can grab something for on the go. The former Marine replicated some Apples and smiled. "It's been swell Athlen, Hopefully Stone will change his mind before too long. I would hate to leave this ship before I even really had a chance to be on the ship." He chuckled. "I'll see you around. " He noticed Liyar's yellowing. "Are you feeling alright buddy?"

Athlen waved goodbye to their departing forms. He stayed seated, finishing off his meal with, fortunately, a minimal amount of Staring.

"I will be functional once we complete our work," Liyar replied honestly as they headed out through the doors.

"If you say so. You almost lost your cool in there. " Cyrus remarked, referring to the meeting.

"My cool?" Liyar asked while they walked back down to the turbolift.

"I don't think I've seen you so upset before."

Ouch. So they had noticed that. "I believe that it may be a temporary effect of what is occurring," he said in as much an explanation as he had. "The combined symptoms of the crew are... taxing."

The mere fact that the Vulcan had sighed and furrowed his brow had given the former marine more than enough indication that Liyar was distressed. "Don't worry buddy. We'll get this whole thing sorted out."

"I am confident that we will," Liyar repeated what he'd said to Maenad earlier as the doors opened and they stepped through.

OFF:

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

Chief Warrant Officer Cyrus Kiwosk
Former Security/Tactical Officer, SFS
USS Galileo

Crewman Athlen
Sociologist, SCI
USS Galileo

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